


USA States Ficlet Collection

by magicandlight



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers, Statetalia
Genre: F/F, F/M, Ficlet, Ficlet Collection, Gen, I'm not tagging all the states, M/M, too many to tag - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-18
Updated: 2020-09-20
Packaged: 2021-02-12 17:20:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 21
Words: 7,072
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21480016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magicandlight/pseuds/magicandlight
Summary: All of my tumblr ficlets collected into one fic
Comments: 5
Kudos: 33





	1. Face Masks ME/MA

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Maine and Massachusetts, face masks

“I’m sorry, _what_?”

Foster blinked, pausing his video game. “Uh, I just use soap?”

Sam made a horrified noise. “Regular soap? _On your face?_”

“Yeah?”

Sam dropped her head into her hands for a moment before sitting up again, a determined look on her face. “Right. We’re gonna do face masks. One second.”

Foster raises an eyebrow and takes the opportunity to get his game to the next save point before he sets his controller down.

Sam comes back with an alarming number of bottles in her arms. She dumps them onto the floor, sitting down cross-legged in front of him. She picks out a gray bottle, uncapping it. 

Foster recoils. “It’s _black_.”

Sam gives him a flat look. “It’s_ charcoal_.”

“Why are you trying to put _charcoal_ on my _face_?” 

Sam huffs. “It’s good for you. It’ll pull all the stuff out of your pores.”

“Wait. Is this the stuff that nearly made Cam cry when you and Brooke put it on him?” He narrows his eyes at her as she puts some of the black gunk on his face. 

“He didn’t cry. And that was when we took it off, not when we put it on.”

She caps the bottle, seemingly done. Foster frowns. “This feels weird. How come you aren’t doing it too?”

Sam digs through the pile of bottles to hold up another gray bottle, but this one is sparklier. “Mine’s got glitter. I know how you feel about the glitter.”

Namely, that glitter was the STD of the craft section. 

Sam spreads the face mask (?) over her face with practiced ease. Without a mirror though, she misses a spot near her nose. 

Foster leans over and rubs over it. 

Sam smiles at him. 

Foster smiles back. The gross looking charcoal mess is already drying, so it feels weird. “Now what?”

“We wait for it to dry.” Sam shrugs. 

——————

“Ow.” Foster hisses out as Sam peels the charcoal off his face. 

“Baby.” She mutters. 

Foster knows exactly what she means, but sometimes it’s just _so _easy to rile her up. “Now is _not_ the time for pet names.”

Sam glares at him and rips the last of the face mask off. 

Foster watches in somewhat horrified awe as she peels her own face mask off without even flinching. “_How_.”

Sam shrugs, digging through her pile of bottles again. 

She comes at him with one of them and he leans away. “Is this more of that charcoal stuff?”

“No. It’s moisturizer.”

Foster scrunches up his nose, but lets Sam put it on him. 


	2. "Let's Run Away" NY/PA

_ **1992** _

They haven’t been faced with the threat of nuclear damnation for a while now, but now the war is over and they are the last superpower standing and it seems like nothing can faze them anymore.

It’s been a long century- two world wars, the depression, the cold war, Vietnam and Korea and everything else.

They’re laying side-by-side, and Brooke tangles her fingers in his, lifting his hand to her mouth so she can kiss his fingertips.

“Let’s run away.”

Brooke opens her eyes, turning to look at him. “What?”

Will sits up. “Let’s run away. We can go and do everything on your bucket list.”

Brooke had pages of places and things scattered throughout her sketchbooks. Despite everything, they rarely left this continent except for during wars, and there wasn’t exactly time to go see London’s architecture when it was being bombed or reason to see the Louvre when France was occupied.

“We have responsibilities,” Brooke says gently.

“The government will survive without us for a few months.” They have before. “Babe. Nicky will cover for you, Del will cover for me, all we have to do is buy plane tickets and leave.”

It takes a long moment for Brooke to smile at him. “Alright. Let’s run away.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Someday this might become a full story, but basically after the Cold War officially ended Brooke and Will sort of ran away and had this whirlwind tour of the world. They were gone for half a year and most of it was spent in art museums (Brooke) and libraries/book stores (Will)
> 
> This is sort of the beginning of states traveling for any substantial amount of time- Charlie joining the peace corps, Sasha going to visit Russia (and the eventual almost-sorta joint custody deal).
> 
> There were, of course, other times the states sort of ran away (ex. Cordelia smuggling herself into the Olympics), but none of them ever stayed away for anything more than a few weeks.


	3. Molossia/Seborga/Hutt River FTW

"So, you're going to bring your boyfriend next year, right, Mol?" Nate asks, nudging his side with his foot. 

Kevin doesn't look away from where he's kicking Talia's ass on Mario Kart. "Which one?"

Talia snorts, and Kevin's eyes widen as he realizes what he just said. 

_Fuck_, Kevin thinks as he watches Nate grin. 

\----------

Kevin shuts himself in his room (well, it's his room but he keeps calling it the guest room, so Nate isn't actually sure if Kevin knows that it is his room) immediately after, forfeiting Mario Kart in the process, so the only course of action is to get Del. 

Del texts Peter (who's maybe her brother? which maybe makes Peter everyone's brother?) and Peter tells her because Del is his favorite sibling. 

It isn't hard to be the favorite sibling when your competition is Arthur. 

"He's dating those other two micronation boys," Del informs him. "Marcello and Lawrence."

Cal, like any good older sister, has the Wikipedia pages up already. 

\----------

**mole**: they know

**seb**: what?

**hutt**: That's not ominous at all. 


	4. NY/PA Hogwarts AU

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> for tradrishanally, who is probably just happy this isn't an angsty AU

After the sixth-year turns tail and runs away, Will turns to Brooke.

Her wand is still raised from where she cast the hex.

"You good?" Brooke asks, sticking her wand into her bun like a hair stick.

Will is furious, actually, because he didn't need her to but in like that.

"I didn't need you to save me, _Gryffindor_, I had it handled-"

"He called you a-," Brooke stops, unable to force the word out, fury making her voice ten degrees colder. "Discrimination never stops if you never do anything about it."

"It wasn't your fight!" Will shouts, and Brooke takes a step away from him.

"Whatever," Brooke huffs, shaking her head. She turns fast enough that her robe swirls around hr for a moment. "See you around, Will."

-

"Hey, Will."

It's a testament to how many times Brooke does this that none of the Hufflepuffs are surprised to suddenly have a Gryffindor at their table.

(To be fair, Del also does this, but Del is his half-sister, and Slytherins aren't known as rule-followers anyway.)

Will ignores her, focusing on his charms homework as Brooke greets Adam, too.

He's still annoyed about the whole incident where Brooke had hexed a sixth-year for trying to pick a fight with him.

He could handle his own battles, Hufflepuff or not, and he didn't need Brooke to jump in.

"You coming to the match Friday?" Brooke asks cheerily, either oblivious to his mood or purposely overlooking it. "We're playing Ravenclaw."

Will huffs. "So there's no reason for me, a Hufflepuff to come see it then, is there?"

Brooke goes silent and more worryingly, still.

She stops tapping her fingers on the table, and that's enough for Will to look up from his charms homework.

"Yeah, I guess there isn't." Brooke doesn't look at him, just snags an apple from one of the bowls in the center of the table before standing. "Well, I've got practice, so see you later."

She takes a bite of the apple as she turns away, before pausing. "Oh, and you've got number twelve wrong."

Will frowns and turns to look, cursing when he realizes she's right.

"Will, what was that?" Adam is staring at him incredulously.

"What was what?"

Adam frowns at him. "You were a jerk to Brooke just now. She doesn't deserve that, she really likes you, you know."

"No she doesn't, and I don't see why everyone is so insistent that she does."

Even if she did, Brooke and him were sort of friends at the best of times and frenemies at the worst, so he knew how she was. Brooke didn't do _dating_. Will wasn't here to be another notch on her bedpost or a point in some competition against Adrien.

Besides, there was no reason little miss perfect would like him. She was good at everything. The Sorting Hat had spent fifteen minutes trying to figure out where to put her before she'd asked for Gryffindor to be with Adrien. She was one of the prettiest girls in the year and definitely one of the smartest.

Adam shakes his head, standing up from the table and waving at Nicky. "You need to figure out a way to apologize, because that was uncalled for."

Will sets his head on the table after Adam is gone and sighs.

-

**"And Nicky Janssen of Gryffindor has the quaffle, he passes to Adrien Ch- nope, Cordelia St.Clair of Ravenclaw steals the quaffle, she shoots- Gryffindor Keeper Mindy Sibley blocks, passes to Adrien Champlain-"**

Will turns to watch the commotion, Nicky briefly fist-bumping Mindy for the save before he's after the quaffle again, before continuing to make his way over by Adam.

At the unimpressed look Adam gives him, he considers going to sit with Michael instead.

And considering that Michael is his ex-girlfriend's boyfriend, that's saying something.

"You're late."

Will grimaces. "I had to stay after. I had a bit of a fight with someone and got detention-"

Adam's glare softens. "The sixth-year again? Look-"

"I'm handling it." Will bites out, before Adam tries to give him advice.

Adam rolls his eyes, but drops it. "Gryffindor's already made five goals-"

**"Brooke Janssen of Gryffindor shoots- Ravenclaw Keeper Elizabeth Dare dives and _misses_, goal for Gryffindor!"**

Adam smiles. "Make that six goals."

**"Oh, looks like Gryffindor Captain Scott Calvert and Ravenclaw Captain Dare are exchanging words, Calvert's definitely going to be in the doghouse tonight-"**

In the background, the audience can hear McGonagall say _James, please just watch the quaffle_.

"James always seems so different when he's doing the commentary than he does in class." Adam muses, tracking his boyfriend through the air.

**"Wait- Ravenclaw Seeker Alexander Braginsky is diving, he might have seen the snitch, oh, he had to dodge a bludger and lost it-**

"Yeah, he's a lot louder for one," Will adds. "I think it's good for him, remember when his first year?"

"Gods, you sound like a prefect," Adam rolls his eyes, ignoring Will's _but I am a prefect?_ "I think it's more to do with Jules than with running commentary."

**St.Clair has the quaffle, now Champlain does, he passes to Brooke Janssen, she shoots- OH**-"

The Gryffindor side shouts, and half the audience is on its feet, including the people in front of Adam and Will.

"What just happened?" Will asks, standing up too, but he can't see anything.

James resumes commenting after a pause. **"Um, Janssen was knocked from her broom by a bludger, but Champlain and Nicky Janssen caught her before she hit the ground. Alright, Madame Hooch is signaling to restart the match without Brooke Janssen-"**

Adam bites his lip. "Nicky must be worried sick, I better go check on her for him-"

"No, uh, I'll go- you stay and watch Nicky and your sister, I've got it." Will blurts out, not even waiting to hear Adam's response before he leaves.

-

Madame Pomfrey assures him that Brooke is fine, that she must have been knocked out from the pain when the bludger broke her arm and that's why she fell, that she'll be awake sooner rather than later, but Will is still anxious about it.

The whole Gryffindor team bursts in after the end of the match, Adam with them, all of them buzzing with adrenaline from their win, generally making nuisances of themselves until Pomfrey kicks them out.

Adrien and Nicky had both sent Will some odd looks, but in the end, neither had said anything to him.

Only a few minutes after the Gryffindors have been kicked out, protesting the whole way, Brooke grimaces as she wakes up. "Ow," she murmurs softly, and Will is so relieved he laughs.

Brooke blinks her eyes open, turning her head to look at him. "Nice of you to mock my pain," She slurs out tiredly.

Will sighs. "Brooke-"

"Will, I'm too tired to deal with this right now. Can you please just go?"

Brooke's eyes are closed, so she doesn't see the hurt on Will's face.

Will swallows. "Yeah, okay."

-

Will gets a second-year Gryffindor to retrieve Nicky since the Fat Lady won't let him in, and then heads back to the Hufflepuff common room.

Adam furrows his brows when he sees him come in, closing the book he's reading. "I thought you were going to stay with Brooke?"

"She asked me to leave."

"_What? _Did you say something?"

Will drops into his favorite chair. "No," he answers glumly.

Adam grimaces. "Well. You have been sort of rude to her lately... I mean, a girl liking you only gets you so far into their good graces."

Will sinks lower into the chair. 

"You just have to figure out a way to fix things," Adam says optimistically. 

Somehow, Will doesn't think it'll be that easy. 

-

They pass each other in the halls and they don't make eye contact. 

-

Brooke and Nicky are purebloods, but from the way Del says some of the nasty kind of Slytherins talk about them, you wouldn't think so. Their father is some kind of ambassador, and their mother was from somewhere in the middle east. They grew up around the world, never staying anywhere very long, and rumor had it they'd lived in the muggle world for a while. From the moment Brooke stepped in Hogwarts, she was a foreigner.

In an offhand way, Will knew that first year had been a little rough for Brooke, but he'd only known her from the gossip then. Second-year was the year Nicky started, and it only got worse. Will had never gotten the full story, just a lot of rumors, but there had some business with duels, and then suddenly Adrien and Brooke were practically inseparable.

He'd met Brooke in their third year when they had Ancient Runes together. Honestly, she was half the reason he passed the class. Will learned a few important things about Brooke that year: one, that she couldn't keep her mouth shut to save her life. She'd called whats-his-face Flint from Ravenclaw a homophobic bigot during class once and refused to even act apologetic about it. Two, that she was smart as a whip and would help you if you asked her. Three, that she was _really_ annoying sometimes, and one you'd befriended her, it was very hard to get rid of her. 

Will is only hoping he didn't manage to get rid of her when he was being stupid. 

The Gryffindors shoot confused and in some strange cases, _knowing_ looks at him as he approaches their table at breakfast the next day. 

Will decides to ignore Adrien sighing and passing Nicky three galleons when he stops in front of Brooke. 

"Hey." He says uncertainly. 

Brooke's poker face definitely isn't helping him feel welcome. "Hey."

"Um, can I talk to you?"

Brooke shrugs half-heartedly. Adrien elbows her harshly. 

"Fine," she breathes out, standing. 

-

"What do you want from me, Will?" Brooke asks when Will struggles to figure out what to say. "Are you going to yell at me about hexing that sixth year again?" 

Will grits his teeth, and Brooke exhales sharply. 

"_He called you a mudblood and you were just going to let it happen!_"

Will's eyes widen and Brooke claps a hand over her mouth. 

She closes her eyes for a second, hand falling again. "Sorry, but- no one gets to call you that. He doesn't get to call _anyone _that."

Will swallows, realizing something he should have figured out sooner.

She hadn't hexed that sixth year because she thought he needed help or rescuing, it was because it was what she would have done for anyone. 

"That's not what I wanted to talk about," Will says, looking away when her eyes snap up to examine hers. "I'm sorry I was a jerk lately, though."

Brooke shrugs. "It's alright."

"I'm sorry I've been a little oblivious, too."

"What-?"

Will kisses her, hoping that he was right, that Adam was right, that everyone who told him that Brooke liked him too was right. 

Brooke is frozen against him. 

Will's heart is in his throat when he pulls away, taking a step back. "Sorry- everyone said that you liked me too-"

"Too?" Brooke whispers. 

Will swallows. "I've um. Maybe had a crush on you since third year?"

"Really?"

"Yes-"

Brooke kisses him, tugging him down by his tie so she can reach. 

"Three Broomsticks, Friday, eight o'clock?" She says when they pull apart. 

Will's struggling to keep up. "Like... a date?'

Brooke smiles. "Yes."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> all the characters mentioned by name are states, the last names used are their human AU surnames


	5. NA Meeting w/ Jake (ID) and Sebastian (BC)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> anonymous asked: _Can we get the story of what happened at that NA meeting, the one with Jake and Sebastian? _in response to [this post](https://magicandlight.tumblr.com/post/621639579370422272/can-we-see-some-idaho-and-british-columbia-please).

“I hate these,” Rory mumbles mutinously, and Sebastian just suppresses a smile. “There are too many personifications, and it’s all jumbled together.”

“You’ll get used to it, after a while,” Sebastian tells them, ruffling their dark hair. “Sometimes it’s nice to see everyone.”

“It’s _ loud _ .” The courtyard of the meeting building _ is _loud, Rory isn’t wrong about that, but there’s something nice about seeing all the others spread out on picnic blankets, all within shouting distance.

Sebastian waves his hand dismissively. “It’s only once a year. And even our meetings are loud, and we only have sixteen.”

“Imagine having to have a meeting with sixty-six.” Jake smiles as he sits next to them, offering Sebastian a folder. “Aidan asked me to bring these to you.”

Sebastian briefly glances at it before tossing it by his bag to deal with after lunch. 

“I’m going to hang out with Sasha, he’d agree that it’s too loud,” Rory announces, stealing the muffin out of Sebastian’s hand and cramming it into their mouth, running off before he can yell at them. 

Sebastian rolls his eyes when Rory jumps over Anna as they run across the courtyard, completely ignoring the reprimand that Toby yells after them. “I’m pretty sure Sasha would agree with anything Rory says.”

“They disagree over the planetary status of Pluto,” Jake says, idly picking at the peel of an orange.

“Really?”

“Yep. Sasha complains about it in the groupchat.” 

Sebastian risks a glance at him, the easy way he holds himself. 

“What happened to that boy you were dating?” 

Jake grimaces at the reminder. “I-uh. I broke up with him.”

“Nice to see you finally grew a spine, he seemed like a jerk.” It’s a statement Sebastian wouldn’t have thought twice about before, one that would have made Jake shove him away and respond with some sarcastic quip before, but Sebastian realizes he’s made a mistake as soon as Jake’s face falls.

Sebastian doesn’t usually hear much gossip, since he’s so far north and two of his neighbors are kids, but he’s heard rumors what made Jake look so uncharacteristically fragile the year before. Not a single one had been good. The way he looks right now almost proves them true. 

Jake opens his mouth to say something and then closes it again. 

“Jake-” 

“Sorry, I just remembered I have to talk to someone about something. I’ll see you later, I guess,” Jake mumbles, quiet the way he was last year, throwing the rest of his lunch into the trash as he leaves. 

A few of the American states glance up at his abrupt exit, but Helena is the one who disappears after him. Brooke, who had been laying with her head in Adrien’s lap actually props herself up on her elbows to watch him go, brow furrowing as she says something to Will. Callie frowns at the door as it closes behind Helena, glancing at Sebastian and narrowing her eyes. 

Sebastian tries not to look too guilty. Callie looked non-threatening, but anyone who could date the people she’s dated and come out relatively unscathed and well-liked should be feared. 

He’ll apologize, later. It’s not the first time he’s put his foot in his mouth. 

\------

“Sebastian.”

He turns at the sound of his name, all the warning he gets before Helena punches him. 

“_ Fuck _, Helena, I think you broke one of my teeth.” Sebastian winces as he touches his front teeth with his tongue, pain radiating through his mouth. 

“I heard what you said to him.” 

“I was going to apologize.” Sebastian hisses angrily, spitting out blood into the trash can. 

“Oh.” Helena pauses, and Sebastian notes bitterly that her knuckles don’t even look red, let alone busted as she puts her ring back on. At least she’d taken it off to punch him. “Still doesn’t make it okay that you said it. You deserved that punch.”

“Helena. Is it true? About what happened to him?” 

Helena scowls at him, immediately pulling her ring back off. Sebastian takes a step away. “Nevermind!”

“It’s not my story to tell. I won’t tell anyone else about this, because Jake wouldn’t want me to, but pull anything like this again-”

“I know. Do you know where he is?” 

\------

Jake doesn’t look up when Sebastian sits next to him on the balcony. 

“I’m sorry about what I said. It was uncalled for and insensitive of me.” 

Jake shrugs. “It’s alright.” 

“It isn’t,” Sebastian replies, digging out the chips he’d gotten from a vending machine out of his pocket. “Here, I know you threw your food away.”

“Thank you.”

Sebastian shrugs it off, feeling guilty that he’s the reason that Jake had thrown his food away in the first place. “It’s no problem. Come on, if we’re late someone is going to yell at us.”

Jake smiles.


	6. 64. “Here, take my blanket.” FL/GA

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> part of this set of drabble challenge prompts: https://magicandlight.tumblr.com/post/184526871307/drabble-challenge

It’s colder than Scarlett had expected.

Usually, when she goes down to Flora’s, she packs shorts and t-shirts. And when Flora had said to bring a jacket, Scarlett had packed one of her lighter ones. 

A decision she was regretting now. They’d been here for a while- Flora had wanted to make sure they had good spots so they’d laid out their blanket early- and the chill had set in. Even with the blanket wrapped around her shoulders, Scarlett was cold. 

Even Flora’s excitement about the fireworks that were going to be set off couldn’t keep her mind off the cold. (Flora, however, was adorable. She had seen these fireworks nearly every year since Disney had started doing them, and she still got excited.)

“Are you cold?” Scarlett looks over at the question. Flora’s frowning in concern, but Scarlett gets caught up in how pretty she looks with her beanie hat and her curly hair.

There’s no point in trying to act like she isn’t when she’s shivering, so Scarlett nods. 

Flora unwraps the blanket from her own shoulders, moving to wrap it around Scarlett’s. “Here, take my blanket.”

“We can share it,” Scarlett compromises.

Flora nods and scoots closer, and Scarlett leans against her girlfriend as she wraps the blanket around both of them. 

Scarlett kisses Flora’s cheek before she sets her head down on her shoulder. 


	7. 94. “I had a bad dream again.” AL & GA

_ **1866, Philadelphia** _

Josh wakes up gasping. 

He doesn’t fully remember the shell explosion that took the hearing from one ear and damaged the other- just the pressure and heat and light- but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have nightmares about it. 

He reaches up to touch his deaf ear, feeling at the edges of scar tissue leading into his scalp and spilling down his neck. 

He’s lucky the explosion didn’t ruin his whole face.

The dream leaves him feeling unsettled and oversensitive, and he knows he won’t be going back to sleep. 

He stumbles down to the kitchen after pulling on clothes, hand tight on the rail. His balance was still iffy, and he’d had too many close calls with the stairs to care about pride. 

Josh isn’t entirely surprised to see Scarlett perched on the counter beside the window with an apple. 

He’d be more surprised if there wasn’t another state down here. The Former Confederacy was stuck in Philadelphia until the government decided they were well-behaved enough to deserve their statehood back, and they were all dealing with the war in their own ways. Josh had found nearly all of the other southerners hiding in the kitchen in the early morning hours, kept up by the nightmares or the guilt or the anger. 

Scarlett raises an eyebrow at him, and Josh sighs. 

“I had a bad dream again.” He mutters, scrubbing a hand through his hair. 

Scarlett frowns. “The explosion?”

Josh leans against the counter beside her. “Yeah.”

Scarlett’s easy to talk to about it- she was the one who had dragged him home from that battlefield and tried to hold the pieces together. He’d seen her uniform, where the blood must have soaked through to her skin. She knew firsthand how bad it had been. 

But Scarlett’s easy to talk to in general, and that was part of the reason he’d loved her for so long. 

It was awful, but it’d almost been a relief when he asked her out and she’d blurted out the truth in a panic, relief that it wasn’t just him Scarlett wasn’t interested in. 

“What’s keeping you awake?” Josh asks. 

Scarlett hesitates. “I keep thinking about what would have happened if I’d been alone in that house with Jackson, towards the end.”

Josh shudders. 

Towards the end, they’d all seen how he looked at her, when he was starting to go crazy. 

“He deserved to die in a way much worse than he did,” Josh mutters, and Scarlett nods. 

She reaches over to grab an apple out of the bowl and offers it to him. It’s a clear subject change, but Josh doesn’t comment.

“How’s the sign language going?” She asks. 

Josh sighs. “I can only remember half the alphabet, yes and no, and curse words.”

Scarlett laughs.


	8. 55. “You’re a nerd.” NJ/RI

“You’re a nerd.” 

Somehow, Adam sounds surprised. 

Nicky turns the page of the new Batman comic. “What clued you in? The fact that I know the scientific name of every plant in this house, the fact that all of my pets are named for literary characters, or that I have a comic collection people would kill for?”

Adam flops down on the bed beside him. “You know what I mean. It’s just- you wear leather jackets and have spiky hair and _tattoos_-”

“Your sister has tattoos.”

“Exactly!”

“Your sister can recite 150 digits of pi.”

“_Anyway_, it’s just you’re- cool.”

That, out of everything, gets Nicky to look up. “You think I’m cool?”

Adam gives him a flat look. 

“_Aw_, I think you’re cool, too.”

Adam rolls his eyes as Nicky kisses his cheek. 

But when Nicky leans over so he can read the comic too, he does. 


	9. 24. “It’s six o’clock in the morning, you’re not having vodka.” MI/OH

Michael wakes up first, which doesn’t happen very often. A glance at the clock says it’s early, but they’d fallen asleep right after they got back last night, and he doesn’t feel tired. 

Cordelia’s brown hair is falling out of her braid, and she looks so very soft and peaceful when she sleeps. 

Michael kisses her cheek, and then her temple. The space between her eyebrows that scrunches up when she thinks, the tip of her nose, the corner of her mouth. 

Cordelia hums, shifting so he’s kissing her full on the mouth instead. 

When he pulls away, Cordelia opens her eyes and smiles at him, reaching to comb her fingers through the soft hair at the nape of his neck.

“Hey,” She murmurs, bumping her nose against his lightly. Her voice has that slightly husky quality it always has when she first wakes up, the one he not-so-secretly thinks is kinda hot. 

He’s just leaning in to kiss her when the phone rings. 

Cordelia groans. “Ignore it.”

He gives her an apologetic look and grabs it from the nightstand, unplugging it. 

He frowns at the unfamiliar number. It’s an Indiana area code, but it isn’t Riley’s number. 

Cordelia kisses his neck. “Probably a telemarketer,” she offers, kissing his neck again. 

Michael gives her a quick peck on the forehead, tilts his head up so she can kiss his neck more, and answers the phone. “Hello?”

“So, in theory, what would you say if I told you I was maybe arrested and needed someone to bail me out?” 

Michael closes his eyes and counts to five. Cordelia kisses his neck again. 

“_Cassidy_.”

Cordelia pauses. 

“Why were you arrested?”

Cordelia looks up at him with wide eyes. 

Cass mumbles something. 

“What?”

“Some dude was an ass to Riley and I may have punched him and that maybe started a bar brawl?” 

There goes his lazy morning with Cordelia. Michael sighs. “Is Riley with you?”

“Yeah. And maybe also the others? Except Ty. He had a thing with Kit.” Cordelia’s heard enough that she rolls her eyes and gets up. Michael shoots a mournful gaze at the hem of her sleep shirt on her bare thighs as she pulls on her jeans. 

“Define others.”

“Uh. Oliver. Mindy. Oh, and Austin.”

Michael sighs. “I’ll be there in an hour or so.”

He says goodbye, and Cass hangs up. 

He scrubs a hand over his face. “God, I need a drink.” He gives Cordelia a considering look. “Got any vodka?”

Cordelia crosses her arms, unimpressed. “It’s six o’clock in the morning, you’re not having vodka.”

Michael pouts at her for a minute, until she throws his clothes at his face. “Come on, let’s go bail out our siblings.”

“Can we leave Austin there?”

“No.”

“But Corey-”

“No.”


	10. 4. “I’m too sober for this.” NV/UT

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> pre-relationship

“You’re not supposed to smoke inside,” Emily informs him, crossing her arms. 

_Why, why can’t Nate enjoy the meeting lunch break in peace?_ He found the most out-of-the-way window so that he could lean out, maybe let the cold make him feel a little bit more alive and smoke a cigarette in peace. 

Nate nods at her, mock seriously. “Well, it’s a good thing this isn’t a cigarette.”

“Nate!”

“Kidding. Mostly. I’m not hurting anyone.”

Emily gives him a _look_. 

Nate snorts. “You aren’t Marisol. Doesn’t work.” Emily is a good _foot _shorter than him and has Bambi eyes. 

Emily frowns at him. She looks like she’s going to say something, but then she covers her mouth and coughs harshly instead. 

Nate quirks an eyebrow. “You sick?”

Emily gives him a withering look. “You’re an asshole, you know?”

Nate shrugs. “Yeah.”

Suddenly, he is way too tired for this. He can’t sit through the rest of the meeting in this mood.

He leans out of the window, stubs his cigarette against the exterior bricks, and flicks the bud in the trash. 

“_Adiós, Emilia_.” He calls as he passes her. Being called Emilia annoys her, and he knows this.

“Where are you going? The meeting restarts in ten minutes!”

“I’m way too sober for this!”


	11. 25. “I swear, I’m not crazy!!!,  America & States

“I swear, I’m not crazy!!!” Alfred shouts when Ginny raises an eyebrow at him. “There was a couch here!”

Watching from the safe distance of the staircase landing, Daniel steals a piece of popcorn from his twin. “How long until he starts questioning his sanity?”

David shrugs. “Eh. Depends. Less time since Ginny is in on it.”

Alfred scrubs his hands through his hair and then catches sight of Addison walking by the room. “Addison!”

Daniel groans. “She’ll ruin it for sure!”

Addison comes back to lean in the doorway. “Yeah?” 

Alfred points at the spot where until yesterday, there had been a very nice, plush couch. “Wasn’t there a couch here?”

Addison’s eyes flick up to where the twins are for the smallest moment. 

Addy gives Alfred a confused look. “What couch?”

Daniel’s jaw drops. 

“Did she just-” David whispers. 

“She did.” Daniel confirms. 


	12. 77. “It’s a Texas thing.” MN/TX

_(the morning after their first date)_

Austin wakes up with hair tickling his nose, and from there it’s only a moment until he realizes that it’s because Mindy’s head is tucked in the crook of his neck. 

Which is. Not right. Well, Austin’s not going to complain, but he’s very very sure they went to sleep on opposite sides of the truck bed, not touching at all.

He looks around, and yeah, he’s still on his side. Which means Mindy was the one who had cuddled up to _him_. 

Austin brushes her hair out of her face, and apparently, Mindy’s a light sleeper because even that gentle gesture makes her eyebrows scrunch up as she starts to wake up.

He kind of wants to kiss her forehead, but he’s not really sure if he can. 

Mindy doesn’t seem as surprised to wake up cuddling, and even though she moves away a little, she doesn’t go very far. 

Austin sits up, pushing the blankets away. “We should probably head back.”

He digs through them for his shirt. He’d taken it off to sleep but he should probably put it back on. 

He catches sight of the red plaid and leans to reach for it. 

He goes completely still at the feeling of fingertips on his back. 

Mindy traces over the dark ink of one of his tattoos. “What’s this of?”

Austin _blanks_. 

“It’s a Texas thing.” He blurts when it’s been too long since she asked. 

_What’s the word what’s the word_\- “Seal! It’s my state seal.”

Mindy laughs, and her hand falls away. Austin pulls on his shirt and hops down out of the truck bed.

“You know, we both have star tattoos,” Mindy tells him. When he looks at her, she pulls her hair to the side and tugs the sleeve of her shirt down so he can see the four-point north star inked on her shoulder blade. 

Austin smiles at her and holds out a hand to help her down. 

Mindy takes it, sliding off the edge and landing lightly.

Mindy doesn’t let go of his hands as she leans up on her tiptoes to press a kiss to his cheek.

(Austin drives home with one hand, the other tangled with Mindy’s.) 


	13. 23. “Do you really need all that candy?” MI/OH

“Do you really need all that candy?”

“Yes,” Cordelia answered without hesitation. “And besides, it’s a week after Halloween. Everything’s half off.”

Michael rolled his eyes, but he threw a package of lifesavers in the cart anyway. He knew they were her favorite. 

“We can get candy corn, too.” Cordelia nudged him towards the bags. 

“You’re just trying to get me to go along with your candy binge,” Michael sighed, but he was smiling too.


	14. 79. “I hope I’m never stuck with you on a deserted island.” ME/MA

Sam is a light sleeper, so when Foster begins mumbling she wakes up.

Her brain is foggy enough that she has to actually check if she’s really awake, and if Foster is really sleep-talking about _coconuts_.

Which is a little cute, at first. But it’s late and she’s tired. 

She pinches his side and Foster recoils so hard he falls off the bed. 

A second later, he sits up to shoot her a confused look over the mattress. 

Sam shrugs. “You were sleep-talking. Really, if your entire survival plan depends on coconuts, then I hope I’m never stuck with you on a deserted island.

Foster just looks more confused as he climbs back into bed, carefully putting an arm around her waist to pull her closer.

He clearly has no idea what she’s talking about and Sam rolls her eyes at her boyfriend as he lays his head on her shoulder. 


	15. 94. “I had a bad dream again.” IA/SD

Tyler wakes up to Kit nudging him. 

“Wha?” he mumbles into his pillow.

Kit buries his head in Tyler’s neck, and it takes embarrassingly long for Tyler to realize he’s crying. 

“Kit?”

“I had a bad dream again.”

Yesterday, Kit hadn’t slept because of nightmares. He’d been shaky and overcaffeinated all morning. 

Tyler reached up to gently run his fingers through Kit’s hair. 

He keeps running his fingers through Kit’s hair, even after his shoulder starts to go numb, even after he feels Kit stop crying. 

Tyler keeps up the soothing motion long after Kit’s asleep, until finally, his own eyes slip closed too. 

(They sleep past lunch, but neither of them really care.)


	16. 24. “It’s six o’clock in the morning, you’re not having vodka.” CA

“Cal, it’s six o’clock in the morning, you’re not having vodka.” Alfred sighs, scrubbing his hands over his face. 

“But we have leftover jello shots!” 

“I repeat, it is _six o’clock in the morning_, you’re not having vodka.”


	17. 32. “I locked the keys in the car.” Great Lakes Fam

“Cass, I need some help,” Oliver mumbles into the phone. 

He can hear Michael’s music playing in the background. 

“With what?”

“I locked the keys in the car.”

Riley laughs. 

“Did you put me on speakerphone?”

“Yes,” Cass tells him without any shame at all. “Where are you?”

“Not out of Chicago yet?”

“Cool. Landmarks?”

Oliver rattles off a few buildings and Cass tells him she’ll be there in ten and hangs up. 

————–

Cass brings a skinny piece of metal with her, and Oliver doesn’t realize what it is until she slides it into the window. 

She slides it down until it clicks, and a moment later she’s opening the door. 

“What the hell, Cass.”

She grins. “If you had lost your keys, I could hotwire it for you too.”

Oliver just stares at her before he shakes his head. “Thanks, Cass.”

Cass is still grinning, eyes sparkling. “Yeah, no problem. Bye!”


	18. 9. “You can’t banish me! This is my bed too!” KY/TN

The third time Kendall presses his cold feet against Tim’s leg, Tim informs him that he’s banished from the bed. 

Kendall raises his eyebrows. “You can’t banish me! This is my bed too!”

“You can take your cold feet and sleep on the couch if you don’t knock it off.” Tim gets grumpy when he’s tired, and it’s awful but sometimes it’s fun to mess with him. 

The next time he does it, Tim gets up and grabs his pillow. “Babe-”

Tim flips him off. 

—————–

Thirty minutes later, Kendall gives up trying to sleep alone. 

He pads out into the living room.

Tim’s having the same trouble, enough that he moves so that Kendall has room to lay down beside him without a word.

“Sorry.” Kendall murmurs, and Tim sighs.

“I overreacted. You’re fine.”

They stay on the couch, and Kendall is just starting to fall asleep when Tim shifts to get more comfortable and falls off the edge.

Kendall sits up to look at Tim, who just looks so incredibly _done_ right now. 

He laughs. “Come on, let’s go back to bed.”


	19. 8. “You’re seriously like a man-child.”

“You’re seriously like a man-child.” Cal announced. “Why are you even doing this?”

Alfred looked up from where he was rigging water balloons above the doorway. “England always gets here first-”

Evangeline rolled her eyes and cut him off. “Ever hear of pulling pigtails? Yeah, Al never grew out of that phase.”


	20. meetings, interrupted

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> these are from an abandoned fic where the states keep interrupting meetings :) enjoy

1899

None of the nations comment on the child that barrels across the room and into the United States's leg halfway through the Americas meeting.

In fact, most of them pointedly ignore the boy, even when the United States lifts him into his lap. Cuba and Canada smile wryly, and Mexico scrunches her nose up at him, smiling when she's rewarded with a giggle.

They do not ask which one this is, though it must be one of the southwestern states to be this young. 

It is not a secret in this hemisphere that the United States is not the lone representative of his land, though it isn't talked about either. There's something pure about the child personifications the United States shelters, and despite how much they may not like him, they aren't willing to destroy that innocence quite yet. 

1943

"I'll bet you ten pounds that's a state," Australia casually whispers to New Zealand, watching America bicker with one of his soldiers that had interrupted their little war council. 

Humans usually wouldn't recognize that the boy was just a touch_ off_, maybe a little too young to be in the military. Even if they did, they'd assume he was just one of the hundreds of boys who lied about their age to join up. Australia, who'd been dealing with his seven hellions his entire life, was probably better at identifying states than the average human _or_ nation. 

New Zealand frowns thoughtfully. "Has to be, right? He's a bit-" they wave their hand in a complicated gesture. "Plus, he doesn't look like a solider, not really. Or human, if you know what to look for."

Australia squints. New Zealand's right. The boy's eyes are a little too bright and knowing. All his teeth are straight. No acne or chicken pox scars. He's attractive, objectively, though perhaps not conventionally. "Definitely a state."

1992

"Dad! Cal took my book!" 

Poland stops talking to stare at the boy who'd burst into the sitting room. 

"Alexander," America groans, "Didn't I tell you guys to stay upstairs? We're having a meeting."

The boy- Alexander- frowns. "It doesn't look like a meeting to me," he accuses. 

Also, _"Dad"???_

Poland glances at Lithuania, startled by the small smile on the other nation's face. 

America winces when he catches Poland's confused expression. 

"So, you know how I'm the United _States_, Poland?"

"Yes?"

"Yeah, it's a bit more complicated than that."


	21. some soft ME/MA

Drunk people usually put Sam on edge, but Foster never has. Foster’s affectionate when he drinks, in a soft, sleepy sort of way. He just wants her to be right there beside him, and that’s easy to do. 

“I like your hair when it’s pink,” Foster says, giving up on the clumsy braid he’d been doing. Sam has a feeling her hair looks like a disaster, but she’d given up on keeping it neat after Cameron had ruffled her hair three separate times. 

Sam hums, tipping her head back when Foster runs his fingers through her hair again. 

She winces when he catches on the abandoned braid and it tugs her hair. 

“Oh,” Foster frowns. “I’m sorry.” 

He looks like a kicked puppy and Sam rushes to reassure him. “It’s alright, here, I’ll just undo it.” 

Foster hums and reaches out like he’s about to flick her earring again. Sam frowns at him and he retracts his hand. Sam finally gets the braid undone- Foster had practically tied it into a knot- and leans back against his chest. 

“Sam, why the fuck is your name-” Foster pauses to count his fingers and mouth letters to himself, “ _ Twelve _ letters long?”

“Thirteen,” Sam corrects, smiling. 

Foster frowns at her. “That's even worse!”

Sam laughs. “ _ What?” _

“How do you spell that, all the time?”

“Oh, she doesn't. No one ever told you about Sam misspelling her own damn name?” 

Sam gives Cameron a look that has made lesser men (mostly politicians) cry. “Shut up and go away, Cameron.” 

“She misspelled Massachusetts all the time when we all wrote our names with our heights as kids.” 

“I was  _ illiterate _ ,” Sam hisses. “And standardized spelling didn't exist.” 

“You still-”

“Will used to spell his name with as many n’s as he felt like and he doesn't even have the excuse of being illiterate, so shut up.”

“You used to spell your name wrong?” Foster asks, gleefully. 

Sam gives Cameron a look that clearly states that he’d be a dead man if Foster didn’t have his arms around her. 


End file.
